Trump says CBS has ‘great potential’ with new owners
President Trump said Sunday that he thinks CBS has “great potential” after a summer merger between CBS parent company Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance placed the son of a close Trump ally at the helm of the media corporation.
Earlier this month, Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, bought Bari Weiss’s news website “The Free Press” and installed her as CBS News’s new editor-in-chief.
In remarks to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump commented on the recent changes at CBS News and asked the gathered press who they think will become the next head anchor at CBS.
“Not Norah O’Donnell, I don’t believe it,” Trump said, lightheartedly, referring to the longtime network journalist who last year transitioned out of her anchor role on “CBS This Morning.”
Status News reported that Weiss had lunch on Friday with O’Donnell, who “appears to have emerged as a favorite of the new boss,” The New York Post reported.
Trump praised the Ellison duo and said he’s confident they would “do the right thing.”
“But, I’ll tell you what, Larry Ellison is great, and his son, David, is great. They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine. And they’ll do the right thing. They’re going to make CBS, hopefully they’ll —,” Trump said to reporters, before cutting himself off.
“And it’s got great potential. CBS has great potential,” Trump added.
A controversial figure in the media and an outspoken critic of the mainstream press, Weiss founded The Free Press after leaving The New York Times as a columnist, criticizing the newspaper and other leading news outlets for what she described as groupthink and partisanship.
At CBS News, Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news,” Paramount said in an announcement last week.
The Hill has reached out to CBS News for comment.